THE NEW WAVE OF GOURMET PIZZA

Some simple and some extravagant, handcrafted pies are all the rage in San Diego

There’s a language barrier between you and the ESL Italian grating a Parmesan hunk over your Neapolitan pizza. Nice! Another authentic touch from husband-wife owners Matteo Cattaneo and Alexa Kollmeier. By the door they put a statement piece from Naples: a golden tiled-mosaic wood-fired oven. An award-winning pizzaiolo devised their 22 thin-crust creations. Consistency varies. But taste time-honored tradition in that Alexa ($12). It’s fennel sausage, rapini, scamorza cheese and sublime. Also remarkable: Buona’s tart San Marzano tomato sauce; the chewy heft of their dough … and how freaking hard it is to get a seat at the marble tables inside. Most likely you’ll be on the patio. Hotel del Coronado, 1500 Orange Ave., Coronado. (619) 522-8546 or
hoteldel.com/eno-wine.aspx. Closed Mondays. Pizza oven established in March.

Sure, the dough on that Margherita ($15.50) is as thick as a pretzel and salted accordingly, but dining seaside, outdoors, near the sandy expanse that brought you to the Hotel Del in the first place is the appeal. OK, and a wine flight to go with your wood-fired veal-meatball pizza is no punishment either. (Nearly 5 years old, the wine bar installed a wood-fired oven on its patio and “pizzeria” in its name.) Gluten-free crust available.

Chef Fabrizio Cavallini obsesses over dough technology — mostly how humidity affects the Italian flour, water, olive oil and salt he lets ferment together for three days. In his gas oven, the dough blisters and crisps through to its delicate center, offsetting the full-mouthed flavor of a Piccante ($15; chili-pepper sauce and spicy salami) and complementing a subdued Margherita ($12; tomato base covered with milky fresh mozzarella and giant basil leaves). Cavallini and his co-owners hail from the thigh area of the Italy’s boot. And they kept the refined-simplicity formula from their other restaurant, the pasta-centric Bencotto next door. Except at Monello the attractive customers eat with their hands.

Hidden at the busy mouth of the Kensington, Haven is spare, save for a hypnotizing piece of mandala-like art. Pizza-wise, there are choose-your-own-topping adventures that will cost extra. Among the preset ’za, a meat lover will be drawn to The Biz ($10.99 or $16.99 depending on size), with natural pepperoni, bacon, salami, mozzarella and crunchy green onions. While it’s not traditional Italian — the crust is yeasty like baked bread — Lauren Passero says she opened this joint two blocks down from her Kensington Café to feed a carb demand. “There were two things people were always looking for in the neighborhood, and it was pizza and sushi.” Gluten-free crust available.

Born on the outrageous Vegas Strip, this growing chain lures you to its ingredient assembly line, lets you customize a personal-sized pizza for $7.50. You don’t pay extra for toppings, an assortment from roasted yellow peppers and ricotta to Canadian bacon and pineapple. Suffering from choice overload? The Number 7 is like a sweet, hammy pastry with prosciutto, mozzarella and caramelized onions. Number 2 is a familiar pepperoni, meatball and sausage situation on red sauce. Gluten-free crust available.